Pictures taken with an automatic camera typically require an automatic focus mechanism, an automatic exposure mechanism, and an automatic white balance mechanism for a focused, well-exposed, and white-balance picture. When a picture is taken in the dark, this is typically provided during preview mode and assisted by a visible light pre-flash. During the visible light pre-flash, visible light is emitted from the camera. The camera then receives visible image data based on the visible light pre-flash. Next, the three algorithms of automatic focus, automatic exposure, and automatic white balancing run to calculate suitable focus settings, exposure settings, and white balance settings.
Pre-flash is typically one to a few seconds long depending on the ambient lighting of the target scene. This relatively long visible light pre-flash may result in glare of the persons having their picture taken. Further, visible light pre-flash may indicate to a person that their picture is being taken, resulting in the person moving, changing the expression of their face, etc. Therefore, an invisible light pre-flash may result in a better final picture. As such, it would be advantageous to have an image capture system in which the length of the visible light pre-flash is reduced or eliminated.